As a student in a similar situation who wishes I'd picked a different short-term gig than the one I have now: Ask them what your first assignment will be on the job. I think if I'd gotten an accurate answer to that, I would have been able to figure out that this job wouldn't be too great.

Seems there are a lot of crappy programming jobs out there, and I'm still not sure how to filter those out. ("Avoid government contract work" as an algorithm also would have prevented me from taking this job, though I don't know how generalizable it is.)

How I got this job: University jobs postings. My school has a ton.

Honestly, I should probably just apply to some places and see if I can get a better job, but for some reason I am afraid I will just get turned down.

Consider it rejection therapy, then. It turns out it's OK to be turned down; and you might at least learn something about the interview experience.

Some thoughts:

• Try working for a larger organization where there are more diverse internal opportunities.
• Try working for a much smaller organization (i.e. a startup or small nonprofit) where you are compelled to work on different aspects of the project.
• Try programming-as-sport: programming competitions such as Ludum Dare.
• Try a different technical hobby — learn digital electronics, for instance.
• Find an open-source project that you already have an incentive to work on. Do you use an open-source text editor or other tools? Are there features you'd like those tools to have?

I recommend to all those programmers and scripters et al read that ESR page ("How To Become A Hacker").

You can do much, but the more skills and powers you have, then the bigger responsibility you have to make choice -- to whom you will work for? With great skills its no point to work in commercial software industry or in military assignments -- becouse the first is fixing problem over again and over, second job is destruction. Logically taking -- if the engineer education is only to build bombs then I wish that it should not exist at all, it should be used instead to more peaceful projects and programs.

"2. No problem should ever have to be solved twice." Remember that rule. But thats exactly what computer and commercial software industry does -- fixes the same problem more than twice. In other words - your energy are wasted, gentlemen. Just to go to grab those jobs are quite blind and yes, meaningless. Do you really want to do something which is meant just for sale and that they will be outdated after some years? The only one who gets satisfaction is only sales department, but no customer, and neither You. There are many other ways to get food and cover while still feeling that you make something which is meaningful.

Many perhaps will go to this job becouse being blinded by salary number but missing the whole point -- those men who work on this area arent motivated only by salary, but becouse its fun. Salary numbers are high only becouse there arent so much specialists on the market. As there will be more who can do the required job, salaries will go low. Also in this field self-learning is most important thing.

There are several negative factors about commercial programming jobs: debuging (90% of the time goes for debuging instead of developing new features), missing or too old documentation and lots of PHBs. I remember that my energy was quite wasted becouse I was put on someones project without documentation to fix bugs. And all that low software was becouse of very low programming moral.

Also, when I program or build something then I want to make it last for years, be compatible, and have small requirements. These were not in company's interests, they set very strict limits.

Well, I had once such workplace where I worked 15 hours in a day and just becouse I liked. But not anymore.

Also 20 years ago programming was considered as a form of art, but now what a heck if I cant even choose how I will place the table to feel more comfortable... I quit. That company as all other similar ones dont exist anymore in such form or any longer.